Trivia Bee raises money for Amherst schools; The Harp team wins championship

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Trivia nights at The Harp Irish Pub in North Amherst are a weekly event, so perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that a team it sponsors came out on top at the 18th annual Amherst Education Foundation Trivia Bee.

The team, made up of Joe Sullivan, Mollie Murnane, Sue Overstreet and John Coelho, beat out 33 other teams, which culminated in the championship round with a question asking the teams to identify the letters in the first distress signal put out by the doomed Titanic ship. When they correctly answered “CQD,” the Harp team had earned its second trivia bee win, the other coming in 2006.

Clare Bertrand, a member of the foundations’ trivia bee committee, said this year’s event had the largest number of business sponsors, with the Amherst College Center for Community Engagement serving as the presenting sponsor.

Along with the participants and spectator donations, the trivia bee raised $8,608, which will be used to help fund the foundations’ 2013 Excellence Grants Program.

Requests for proposals from teachers, administrators, schools and organizations affiliated with the Amherst, Leverett, Pelham and Shutesbury public schools can submit applications for grants by Jan. 15, by sending email to grants@amhersteducationfoundation.org. Grants range from $10,000 and $25,000 each.

This year, $44,000 in grants was distributed to fund the Hands-On, Minds-On River Science in Action project at the middle school, a “teaching teachers” literacy initiative at Crocker Farm Elementary School, the purchase of science, technology and engineering books for elementary school libraries and a contribution to the Vela Scholars summer program for middle school students.

Prior to the evening’s festivities, emceed by State Rep. Ellen Story, the committee announced that one of its members, John Coull, was continuing to recover from injuries he suffered in a bicycle accident Oct. 20. Coull is the former executive director of the Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce.